SponsorFest™ Service from Festival Media Corporation Creates a Paradigm Shift in Festival Sponsorship

Internet-based platform allows sponsors to specify what they want; festival producers to match their needs instead of sending proposals.

Seattle, WA November 22, 2005 – Festival Media Corporation, an event sponsorship automation company, today announced the launch and early sales success of SponsorFest, a revolutionary new sponsorship rights planning, purchasing and measurement system that benefits both festival producers and sponsor companies in the US$2 billion arts, cause and community festivals marketplace.
        “SponsorFest turns the sponsorship rights purchasing model upside down,” said Charles D. Brown, Chairman and CEO of Festival Media Corporation. “Until sponsors received thousands of proposals from festival producers, most of which went unread, because they represent only a fraction of the sponsor’s audience requirements and did not match the sponsor’s marketing needs. With SponsorFest, sponsors define their total reach and sponsorship requirements, and receive sponsorship that maximizes attendance within their target audiences and much higher value for their sponsor dollars. SponsorFest also drives the cost out of sourcing sponsorship through automation.”
        SponsorFest is the result of two years and more than two million dollars in development. It was pilot marketed prior to its release to some of America’s largest marketing agencies and sponsor companies, and was received with high praise. Brad Davis, recently retired Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Washington Mutual Retail Banking said, “SponsorFest represents an entirely new discipline in sponsorship marketing, with application well beyond the community event marketplace.”
        “In addition to delivering efficiency and cost savings, SponsorFest allows sponsors and their agencies to estimate beforehand what their likely consumer impressions and sales promotion results will be, and then compare their estimates to the actual results. All of this is done online.” Brown said.

About Festival Media Corporation

Festival Media Corporation (FMC) automates sponsorship rights purchasing in the fragmented festival and events industry. FMC has operated the industry’s top consumer website (Festivals.com) since 1995. Festivals.com has delivered nearly 100 million impressions, sits atop the leading search engines (keyword “festivals”) and provides information to SBC SMARTpages City Guides, The Food TV Network and other leading content websites.

FMC’s Backstage ASP platform was launched in 1995 with Festivals.com and automates the collection of festival and event information from producers. Since its inception Backstage has registered and promoted more than 45,000 events that have attracted 387 million attendees. FMC has developed relationships with thousands of these events who have benefited from FMC’s promotion services to consumers.

FMC’s new ASP products use the Festivals.com, Backstage and the Internet environment to offer both to sponsors and to event producers new value in promotion, business development, marketing and measurement.

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